stoets

Stoets is a Dutch term that is generally considered a nonstandard or historical spelling of the word toets, which means a test, examination, or assessment. In contemporary standard Dutch, the form toets is used for almost all contexts involving evaluation in education, language testing, or other assessments, while stoets appears mainly in older texts or regional dialect writings. The two forms are not used interchangeably in modern formal writing.

The origin of the standard term toets is linked to the verb toetsen (to test, to probe) and to older spellings in which the vowel cluster oe produced various spellings. In practice, writers may encounter stoets in historical documents, in surnames, or in the titles of works that preserve older orthography.

In general usage, when referring to an examination, one would say een toets or meerdere toetsen; for the task of testing, the verb to toetsen is used. In related domains, the concept of a toets is common: musical keyboard keys are called toetsen; test suites, software tests, and educational assessments are described with toets or toetsen.